Category: Vocabulary

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has only itself to blame for its present predicament. Its president and secretary have been removed for defying the Supreme Court’s order to accept reforms suggested by a court-appointed committee. And its president, Anurag Thakur, now faces legal action for contempt of court as well as prosecution for perjury. None of this would have happened had the … Continue reading The price of defiance – Learn Vocabulary

Conspicuous gestures of reconciliation between nations to heal the deep emotional wounds of wars will have connotations that go beyond the symbolic. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, through his visit to Pearl Harbour this week, and U.S. President Barack Obama, with his homage at the peace memorial at Hiroshima earlier in May, have undertaken this bold and difficult journey on behalf of their peoples more … Continue reading Statesmanship at Pearl Harbour – Learn Vocabulary

Description One Word Renouncing the throne by the King Abdication The persistent, abnormal and unwarranted fear of bathing, washing, or cleaning Ablutophobia Fear of height Acrophobia Formed, or done for a particular purpose only Ad hoc A substance that can stick or cause sticking Adhesive A graduate or former student of a school or college Alumnus Fear of riding a car Amaxophobia Animals living both … Continue reading One Word Substitution with Meaning – 01

In November, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Urjit Patel, said there was a ‘confluence of thought’ in the government and the central bank to deal with black money by removing existing Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes as legal tender. Now, just about ten days before the deadline to deposit these bank notes into accounts, a similar confluence of ideas has led to a … Continue reading Demonetisation – An Unkind Postscript (Learn Vocabulary)

That the winter session would be washed out had been clear for a while. With the Opposition parties mustering all their disruptive tactics to stall the functioning of both Houses, insisting on maximalist demands on just how the debate on demonetisation should be structured, hopes for any substantive work had diminished. In the event, the session also left a hysterical afterglow, with Prime Minister Narendra … Continue reading Questions from a Washout – Learn Vocabulary

That the Centre’s decision to withdraw high-denomination banknotes was going to impact economic activity in the short term was never in doubt. But the specific contours of the effects were probably a lot less understood at the time of that announcement. The deflationary shock has manifested itself in a deceleration in retail inflation, as demand for a range of goods and services has been damped. … Continue reading Demonetisation’s Deflationary Shock? – Learn Vocabulary

A year after the devastating deluge, Chennai’s resilience has been challenged by the severe cyclonic storm, Vardah. Equipped with survival lessons from the December 2015 floods and helped by an efficient flow of disaster warning messages, the city and neighbouring districts held together through several hours of fierce winds. Chennai’s trees bore the brunt, many uprooted or torn down irredeemably. The storm hobbled the city’s … Continue reading Through a storm, safely – Learn Vocabulary

In its recent order banning liquor sale and consumption in three districts in the State, the Uttarakhand High Court has drifted outside the confines of law and entered the domain of morals and desired behaviour. The court has crossed its legal remit by extending a government policy of prohibiting liquor outlets in the vicinity of places of worship, to cover Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkashi from … Continue reading Beyond the Court’s Remit – Learn Vocabulary

The battle for Aleppo is almost over. Syrian government troops have captured almost 85 per cent of the eastern part of the city which fell into rebel hands in 2012 in one of the early setbacks to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war. Given the pace of the battlefield advances, it’s only a matter of weeks, if not days, before the Syrian … Continue reading A brutal victory in Aleppo – Learn Vocabulary

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is keeping his fingers crossed about sticking to the April 1, 2017 target to implement the Goods and Services Tax regime. The GST Council he heads meets again on December 11-12 to try to reach a consensus on three pieces of legislation that need to be cleared by Parliament in this session for a rollout in April. In its previous three … Continue reading A reform at risk : Learn Vocabulary